'Well if you really want to learn how to pilot an Alseides, you'll have to learn the simple basics first.' Giggled Viole, turning to Ariana. 'Chesta's pretty good at long explanations, so he'll tag along with us.' 'Where are we going to now?' Asked Ariana. They were walking down a dark corridor, lit by lots of flickering candles. 'This place is so medieval!' Ariana commented, staring up at the huge stone walls. 'Medieval?' 'Never mind' they had reached a balcony, a very high balcony. The wind rippled Ariana's hair, they were floating onboard some kind of airship! 'What is this place we are in?' Ariana asked, running over to the edge of the 'ship'. She peered over the bars; they were above the clouds and could see all the tiny towns and buildings as specks. It was an amazing sight. 'This is the Vione, which is like the mothership of all of the Zaibach floating fortresses. Most of the Zaibach troops are based here, including the Dragonslayers.' 'Who are the Dragonslayers? You mentioned them once before, but just who are they?' Viole sighed, 'They are Dilandau's guymelef troops who fight for Zaibach' She started walking, leaving Ariana gazing at the clouds. 'Well aren't you coming? Chesta will be in the hangar, probably polishing his sword or something.'
They had both reached the hangar. Ariana had never seen such a huge thing in her life. The scale of it all positively scared her. They trundled across a bridge, hundreds of feet up from the bottom of the hangar. 'Why is the hangar so big?' 'We have to fly our guymelefs out of the hangars, plus these aren't just the Dragonslayer's guymelefs. Some of them belong to other Zaibach soldiers.' Ariana turned her head and looked all around, there were men fixing their guymelefs, women chatting about where to attack from and even another hybrid man. 'Look there's Chesta over there!' There stood a gigantic, blue guymelef, alonside many others in a row. It was open at the front, Viole actually climbed up. 'Hey, Chesta here's the new Dragonslayer, will you be able to teach her about guymelefs?' 'So she is the one? She isn't even wearing a uniform.' Ariana didn't feel pleased about him at all. 'Yeah well I just got here, what do you expect? My name is Ariana by the way.' Viole slipped off. 'Hey where are you going?' Yelled Chesta. He was tall, with sleek blonde hair and strange turquoise eyes. 'Uh I was just-' 'Sneaking off?' He replied, his voice didn't quite suit the tone of voice he was using. 'You've got to help too, if that's what Lord Dilandau asked' Viole groaned. 'I'll show you to you're guymelef' they walked a couple of metres. It's just the same as all of the others Ariana thought, no individuality at all.
'Well this is your Alseides guymelef, d'you think you'd be able to get in without help? You have to place this energist inside it. Whoever activates the guymelef with the energist is it's owner forever and a guymelef can be controlled only by it's owner.' Ariana looked thoughtfully at the glowing red sphere. She placed her hand around it, slowly and lifted it up; it was shining brightly. 'What is it?' Viole opened her mouth to speak, but Chesta was faster. 'It is the heart and soul of a dragon, they can be either retrieved off slaying a one or digging fossilized energists out of the ground.' The heart and soul of a dragon? Dragons are supposed to be strong; maybe they give the guymelef's strength or something. Ariana plunged her hand into the hole with the energist. It felt all cold and her hand was numbing, she placed the glowing orb inside. 'That is the guymelef's powerspot, it's where everything is controlled from' proundly added Viole. The guymelef totally lit up, the powerspot was shining brightly. 'It's verifying the energist' said Chesta, stepping back. The hatch at the front of the blue giant opened up. 'Oh, do I just get in now?' Steam poured out as Ariana struggled up, she had done P.E. at school but never anything like this, the experience was breathtaking. 'Now that you're standing up, if you press this button it will strap you in.' Ariana pushed the button, a belt pushed itself over her body and Ariana could hear all of the different noises, like a car settling. 'Huah?' The hatch at the front was closing her in, making hissing noises like an angry cat, it went all dark. It was actually quite comfortable and she could feel it was all padded inside, her eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness, until she could feel the foot of her trousers getting wet. 'Chesta, Viole help me!!!!' Ariana sensed they were still there, even though she couldn't see them. 'Don't worry, it's just the guymelef filling!' yelled Chesta, smoothly. 'What do you mean filling??' Hey hello??' She couldn't hear anybody. The liquid filled the guymelef up to her chest. Stupidly, Ariana pressed the same button she had pressed to lock herself in, even though she wasn't certain of what it would do. The metal clicked and the shield opened, a white liquid poured out, she was drenched. The substance seeped to the very bottom of the Vione.
'Ohh help me, she cries!' joked Viole. 'It wasn't funny!! I didn't know what was happening!' 'When a guymelef fills, it releases a lubricating substance that enables it to move smoother, you can see why we wear PVC uniforms now' A short boy in a Dragonslayer uniform ran up from nowhere. 'Viole, Lord Dilandau wants to see you' Viole sighed and nodded silently to the boy 'This can't be good, he always picks on me' she muttered, walking off.
Chesta followed her with his eyes. 'She must be in trouble again, she must of been one of the two who got their guymelef's damaged in the last fight, she is quite a troublesome person you know.' Still standing inside of the blue monster, she asked 'How do I operate it?' He turned to face Ariana. 'You see these holes here? Put your arms inside and your fingers into the glove and hold onto the bar, they have special sensors that track your arm movement, do the same with your legs, put them into the holes, and you can move your leg and foot around, which should move the guymelef and make it walk.' 'cool' She gripped the bar inside of the specially patented glove, she could feel the cool metal onto her hands. 'Pull this rope and it activates the stealth cloak, which conceals the guymelef from human eye' He pointer to a rope, hanging above her head. 'But how do I make it fight?' He looked deep in thought for a minute and said 'Inside that glove you should be able to feel a couple of buttons, one on the right and one on the left, in both arms. The left one activates the flamethrower, which can cover up to eighteen metres ground-'
'FLAMETHROWERS!!!!' This was better than she had ever expected; she got that really excited feeling deep in her chest. 'And this is the complicated bit' Chesta started 'but I will explain it because it's quite interesting. The button on the right activates the Crima claw, which is huge mercury claw that will shape, reacting to your thoughts' Gawd, this guy can drone on. 'What do you mean reacts to your thoughts?' She asked politely. 'It reacts to spoken thoughts, not visual thoughts where you imagine and see something, but the kind of thoughts that behave like voices in your head. If you command it to turn into a sword in your mind, your thoughts reach the energist and it carries out that order.'
'So if I want it to turn into a shield, a long sword, a huge lance or something it will?'
'Yes, it can't unfortunatly turn any kind of projectile weapon, if you command it to do so it just gets confused.'
'But how can it possibly understand my thoughts? That's scary!'
'Some say that a special bond is created with the pilot and dragon's soul inside the energist, others say that the dragon becomes enslaved, but no one really knows for sure, I know that it doesn't react to emotions though. Do dragons have feelings? Well nobody knows the answer to that either.' He sure likes to talk a lot, why is he keeping me waiting, chundering on about dragons and emotions though? Ariana thought. 'Hey what else does it do and when will I get to use it?!?' she hottly yelled, looking above her at all of the different wires.
'Tug the right handle once and it sets the guymelef to fly, tug the left one and it has a reflecting light on the guymelefs' head, which is good for seeing in the dark with. The only drawback to flying is that you can't use the stealth cloak in flight, use as always you have to use the power of your mind to manoeuvre the machine.' Urrgg. This was more complicated than algebraic fractions in maths. Ariana peered through an eyepiece, which she had flipped down. 'Wow it's telescopic!' she zoomed in onto the hangar bridge, where there were people assembled in orderly rows. 'Chesta, what's happening down there?' she said in a hasty voice. 'It's Lord Dilandau! Quick! Smarten yourself up!' The girl, rushing tucked in her t-shirt and shook her jacket. 'Chesta he's coming this way.' Ariana couldn't quite see him, but he was pretty tall and had short, silver hair which whisped up at the sides, like devil horns. How unusual! She fiddled with the knobs on the guymelef and twiddled with all of the features. 'You'll get to test-pilot it later' Whispered Chesta, anxiously. The silver haired boy approached, quickening his stride as he got nearer Chesta's Alseides.
'Well, well Chesta, I hope you're doing good job on that guymelef, unlike some people' Viole followed short behind him, with a big red mark on the left side of her face. Ariana glaced at Dilandau, he had a plaster stuck to the right side of his face. 'You must be the new girl, you better do a good job, get changed into these clothes you look a disgrace in those clothes.' He dumped a pile of clothing into her arms. 'What!?' She couldn't believe the cheek! He was worse than the Allen and the Asturians, at the same time she couldn't help herself feel......woozy. Viole violently shook her head behind Dilandau's back, as if to tell her to keep her mouth shut. 'Well I guess you're Dilandau, are you the boss? How much do I get paid for this job?' She knew instantly it was a wrong thing to say. 'WHATT????' He reached his hand out and tried to strike her across the face. Dropping her uniform, Ariana swiftly raised her hand and blocked it. 'Yo-ou-u-u!!!! You blocked it!' his voice was very uncertain and slightly raspy, like that annoying teenage boy that you seem to meet in the school corridors. Those self defence lessons finally paid off, thought Ariana, her hand trembling. She stared coolly into his eyes, her right arm still in the blocking position. He had the most strangely captivating garnet coloured eyes. 'Hey my aunt had an albino hamster, she said it was bad tempered because it was visually challenged!' His pale face went red with embarrassment. He cocked his head sidewards and stroked his finger down the side of his right cheek, the pressure made blood appear from underneath the plaster. 'Go on like that I will demote you! Get changed and go to the Dragonslayer's dining area for supper.' Ariana caught sight of Viole, who the whole time was gritted her teeth in suspense while Dilandau was talking. Always outspoken, Ariana had the knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. He walked off, the Dragonslayers bowing down before him.
'You idiot!' Viole yelled, you've gone and put him in an even worse mood now! 'Sorry' she couldn't help sniggering silently inside. She watched him walk down the bridge. 'He has a nice strut' she retorted. Viole and Chesta gawped at her 'Huah?' Ariana's face flashed red. 'Well he does' She added. Viole opened her mouth. 'Do you know anything!? One: you were expected to bow down to him, two: Call him 'Lord Dilandau' and three: YOU DO NOT COMPARE HIM TO A RODENT!' Ariana faced the floor in disgust. 'Where shall I go to get changed?' The uniform was weighing down in her arms. Viole looked at Ariana regretfully. 'Just go back to my room, we haven't sorted one out for you yet.'
In Viole's room (Viole had went off to talk to someone else), Clothes scattered the floor, blue trousers, her stripy t-shirt and her DMs. She took the jacket and undid the front; she slung it on over a purple tank top she was given. Then came the PVC trousers and the long boots in the same shade of blue as everything else. She didn't feel the same as everyone else. 'Ah!' Ariana cried, 'I need one of those sword thingies and that skirt thing that holds the sword in place, a belt too, I need one of those.' Ariana collected the dumped clothes and threw them into the corner where they landed with a small thud. Her hair fell to her face as she nosily bent over to examine a picture, a small painting of a woman and a young boy and girl. 'Ariana are you done!?' She jerked up 'Yeah I'm coming!' Ariana opened the large, wooden door to reveal herself 'Well you look smart!' Ariana stared closely at Viole's face, 'What happened?' gasping at the blotchy mark.
'Dilandau hit me. I kinda damaged one of the guymelefs in battle, she giggled 'I do not tolerate incompetence in my Dragonslayers!' she said, mimicking Dilandau's voice. 'Hit him back then,' Ariana remarked. Viole's jaw dropped. 'I would get demoted or even fired!' 'You must be the new girl.' she said, imitating his voice, quite annoyingly.
'Aww just leave him alone, he's only doing his job' Ariana didn't know why she just stood up for him. 'What's up with you? You're acting like you actually care about him or something.' Ariana faced the ground, her face as red as Dilandau's guymelef. 'Shut up' she gritted. 'Fine. But we're going for supper now, so just close the door when you're finished and come down.' Supper? She was starved and was going to make sure she didn't eat any more snails. 'Just no conversations with the words 'albino and 'hamster' in the same sentence okay?' Ariana laughed. 'I will use full common courtesy I will bow down and kiss the floor he stands on' she replied, sarcastically. 'That's hard if he's standing on it!'
01:42 24/11/01
